Dean's MessageThe week of April 13-19, the Bossier Parish Community College
Library will join other college campuses, as well as schools and communities
across the United States, to celebrate National Library Week. This week is a
time to remind our students, faculty, and staff of the contributions libraries,
librarians, and library staff members make to their communities every day.

Nationwide, library use is up among all types of library users.
This is also true at the BPCC Library, and it is easy to see why. Students,
faculty and staff from all divisions visit the Library for entertainment,
help, or to find a quiet place on the campus. Resources like books,
periodicals, DVDs, computer and WIFI access offered by the Library help
students find jobs, do better in classes, and tackle class projects.
The Library’s BPCC: Healthy at 40 series assisted faculty and staff,
as well as members of the community, in learning new ways to improve
their health.

What makes the BPCC Library unique is access to trained
professionals—librarians—to help find and interpret the information students,
faculty, and staff need to make a difference in their endeavors. Every BPCC
librarian has a master’s degree from an American Library Association
accredited institution and is dedicated to supporting the College’s and
Library’s mission.

What can you discover at the BPCC Library?
National Library Week is the perfect time to find out.
Join the BPCC community. Join the Circle of Knowledge @ your BPCC Library.

WikisA wiki, from the Hawaiian word for fast, is software that
enables users to collaboratively create, edit, organize, and link content on
a website. The websites are typically used for collaborative projects or for
reference material. The best known wiki is
Wikipedia.

Wikis are unique in that they allow the creation and editing
of websites by users who have little or no knowledge of web design or XML.
Users utilize simple text editors (such as Notepad) for creating new pages
and creating links between pages.

In education, wikis are used to track group projects,
review classes and instructors, to post presentations, and for
collecting data from groups of students.

Art in the 21st CenturyA Review by guest contributor Kelly McDade, Art Instructor at BPCCDid you know that in the BPCC library you can check out DVDs and books relating to the
most exciting contemporary artists creating works today? Art:21 – Art in the Twenty-First Century
is many things. First and foremost it is a television show developed for the
Public Broadcasting System (PBS), but Art:21 is so much more than a television program.
There are companion books, DVDs and an interactive
website (http://www.pbs.org/art21)
with links to events, as well as pages and video on facebook, myspace, youtube, etc.

You may be asking yourself, so what makes Art:21 so interesting?
First of all, the show allows artists to speak for themselves. Each hour long episode
features four artists working in their studios. The artists are from diverse backgrounds.
For example, Shazia Sikander, from Pakistan, makes exquisite miniature paintings dealing
with issues of feminism in Muslim and Hindu cultures. Pepon Osario, from Puerto Rico,
deals with street culture and ideas of memory. Trenton Doyle Hancock, from Houston,
has developed an entirely fictional world of vibrant color and strange super heroes.
Cai Guo-Qlang works with notions of power and combustion; he creates gunpowder drawings
and recreates dramatic car chase scenes from the movies with actual cars and neon lights.
You should see the stuffed tiger in one of his installations. It is truly awesome!

The shows are funny and thought-provoking with themes such as romance, play,
spirituality, identify, loss, and desire. I highly recommend the Art:21 materials available
both at the library and on the web because, as the show states: The series affords viewers
and students the opportunity to discover their own innate abilities to understand contemporary
art and to explore the possibilities for creative thinking and self-expression. I mean,
isn’t that one of the primary reasons we are here at BPCC? I think so,
so enjoy the series!

Occupational Outlook HandbookAre you about to make an important decision about which career is best
suited for you? Ever wondered if it is too late to make a change? The
Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) will define these questions and many
more. The OOH is designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making
decisions about their future employment. It contains information such as the
training and education needed, yearly earnings, expected job prospects, what
workers do on the job, working conditions, and employment projections. This
up-to-date handbook is located in our reference collection and can be accessed
online at
http://www.bls.gov/oco.
Check it out the next time you have a question concerning career opportunities.

Learning Express LibraryNeed to practice for that important academic or licensing exam?
Through the
Public Library Databases, you have access to a comprehensive,
interactive online learning platform of practice tests and tutorial courses
designed to help students and adult learners succeed on tests. You'll get immediate
scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individualized analysis of your results.
Featured resources include: ACT, SAT, GRE, CBEST, Civil Service, Corrections Officer,
EMS, Firefighter, GED, GMAT, GRE, Law Enforcement, LSAT, MCAT, Military, Nursing, Paramedic,
Police Officer, Postal Worker, Real Estate, U.S. Citizenship, and many more!

To access this resource you must have a current public library card. Go to
the website for the
Public Library Databases.
Select your parish from the list and enter your public library card identification number. From
the list of databases, select Learning Express. Under Featured Resources, select the
exam that interests you!

More eBooksThe Allied Health and Nursing e-book subject
sets have been added! These full-text, electronic books, available through the
Library’s online catalog,
enable all BPCC students access 24/7 from any computer connected to the Internet.
Funding was made possible through a Student Technology Fee proposal. Combined
with previous sets, the BPCC Library now has 236 eBook titles in the collection.
So remember, even when we're closed, our eBooks are still available.

Copyright and PlagiarismNeed information about copyright and plagiarism? See the new
Library webpage with details such as copyright - what
it is, why to be concerned
about it, and how to abide by copyright laws. For plagiarism, there are pages for
students and for
faculty/staff
including types of plagiarism, an explanation
of the importance of avoiding plagiarism,
possible disciplinary action for the student,
and, for faculty, how to spot it.

BPCC’s Campus Wide IdentificationRemember that the CWID card is necessary for many services in the Library.
A current BPCC ID is REQUIRED to use the TRC, check out books, or use reserve materials.

BPCC does not discriminate on the basis of race,
color, national origin, gender, age, religion, qualified disability, marital status, veteran's status,
or sexual orientation in admission to its programs, services, or activities, in access to them, in
treatment of individuals, or in any aspect of their operations. BPCC does not discriminate in its
hiring or employment practices.

BPCC is a member of the Louisiana
Community and Technical College System (LCTCS).